The “as for that” refers to the path being less worn. The speaker of this poem really can’t seem to make up his mind! Just when we think we’ve got a declaration about which path is better, he changes his mind and admits that maybe they were equal after all. “Wanted,” in this instance, means something more like “lacked.” Then the speaker tells us why the path is better – it seems like it hasn’t been walked on very much, because it’s grassy and doesn’t look worn.īe careful not to think that the phrase “wanted wear” is personification (it is alliteration, though). The speaker still seems pretty uncertain when he explains that this second path is better. The poet thinks he made the fair, or right, choice. So after all this buildup about one road, which he’s looked down for a long time, our speaker takes the other path. But, since he can’t really predict the future, he can only see part of the path. If our speaker is, as we suspect, at a fork in the road of his life, and not at an actual road, he could be trying to peer into his future as far as he can. This is where we start to think about the metaphorical meanings of this poem. But he can only see up to the first bend, where the undergrowth, the small plants and greenery of the woods, blocks his view. He’s staring down one road, trying to see where it goes. The speaker really wants to go down both paths – he’s thinking hard about his choice. Because he’s standing, we know that he’s on foot, and not in a carriage or a car. The speaker is “sorry” he can’t travel both roads, suggesting regret.īecause of the impossibility of traveling both roads, the speaker stands there trying to choose which path he’s going to take. The speaker wants to go down both roads at once, but since it’s impossible to walk down two roads at once, he has to choose one road. “Diverged” is just another word for split. ![]() The woods are yellow, which means that it’s probably fall and the leaves are turning colors. This poem was first published in 1916, when cars were only just beginning to become prominent, so these roads in the wood are probably more like paths, not roads like we’d think of them today. Our speaker is describing a fork in the road.
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